d20advancedfandomcom-20200214-history
Weapons Options
Sometimes, it all comes down to beating your enemies to a bloody pulp. For that, you need to make sure you have the right tools of the trade: you need a weapon with which to unleash that violence, and potentially some armor to protect yourself from the attacks of your foes. This first part of the Great Gear Guide details weapon and armor from all parts of history and popular media. Damage The chart below outlines different kinds of damage. * Physical: If an injury is dealt by displacing tissue or material, it counts as physical damage, which is resisted by Toughness. Most archaic and modern weapons deal physical damage with material striking surface, and almost all melee weapons rely on physical damage to harm a foe. ** Internal Damage: Some physical damage effects work by directly attacking a foe's internal organs, bypassing exterior physical defenses. Internal damage is a type of physical damage which is generally resisted by Fortitude instead of Toughness. * Energy: Alternatively, harm might be the result of not a physical displacement of tissue or material, but instead a direct chemical or other sort of change to that tissue. This includes burns, magic, and other effects which don't cause direct physical harm. If your weapon goes "Zzzap!", it's probably an energy weapon. * Chemical Damage: If a source of damage works internally not by causing physical damage, but instead by changing the actual biochemical function of a creature's body, this is chemical damage. Chemical damage generally targets Fortitude instead of Toughness. * Mental Damage: Sometimes, an effect might directly attack an enemy's mind. Mental damage targets Will resistance instead of Toughness. Damage and Natural Vulnerabilities Objects or creatures with certain descriptors might be especially vulnerable to certain types of damage. For instance, an object with the cold descriptor (an ice sculpture) is likely to be more vulnerable to fire than other effects, while something with the fire descriptor might be more vulnerable to water attacks. Rather than define a complicated web of what certain descriptors are strong and weak against, GMs are encouraged to use discretion when deciding whether or not an effect is vulnerable to a certain descriptor. In general, characters who do not have a predefined Weakness to a certain descriptor should be awarded a Hero Die if the GM decides that they are especially vulnerable to that descriptor. WEAPON ENTRIES In the following chapter, weapons and armor are described in uniform entries for both the general groups they belong to and for the rules and flavor description of the individual weapons and armors themselves: Weapon Group: A description of the general group a weapon falls into. A GM may choose to allow characters to purchase the Attack Specialization feat for an entire weapon group rather than a single attack, for games where heroes are generally using many kinds of attacks. Alternatively, if mastering combat tends to be more difficult, the GM may limit players to choosing the Attack Focus feat for these weapon groups instead of Melee or Ranged attacks as a whole. Finally, a GM might consider requiring characters to purchase Weapon Proficiency feats for each weapon group to use them proficiently. Damage Descriptions: Appropriate ways to describe the effects of damage on creatures during a fight for this weapon group, including the style most appropriate for the weapon group. Special Criticals: Alternative effects that a critical hit might afflict a target with, depending on the nature of the weapon group. These special criticals replace the damage bonus from a critical hit, and are not meant to supplement the existing damage bonus. Special criticals are entirely optional. Weapon description, including appearance, use, and unusual qualities. Variants: Appropriate modifications to this weapon which could be used to model other or similar weapons from different cultures or with slight variations.